CITY GRIT

City Grit always finds a way to make every visit feel special. From the moment you walk in, you’re greeted with the warmest smile at the front desk, always dressed to impress in the cutest outfits that instantly set the mood. As you’re walked to your table, you pass the open kitchen, catching a glimpse (and a whiff!) of where all the magic happens. Then you’re seated at the perfect little table, softly lit by a tiny lamp that makes everything feel romantic, cozy, and just yours. It’s like being at your own private dinner, tucked away from the world but still surrounded by that buzz of good energy. We’re regulars, so Dalton usually already knows what we’ll love, he always has a drink or two in mind before we even open the menu. It’s that personal touch that makes the service feel effortless and genuine every single time. From the conversations that flow easily, to the food that never misses, to the atmosphere that makes you want to stay a little longer, City Grit has mastered the art of making every night in Columbia feel like your best one yet.

After hearing so many great things about City Grit, we’re so glad we finally made it, and it absolutely lived up to the hype! It’s everything we’ve been looking for in a great restaurant. Alisa and the entire team made us feel so welcomed, and the food was amazing. The ambiance was warm and inviting, which made the whole experience even better. Can’t wait to come back for movie nights and Sunday brunches!

I hope that someone reads this on Nov 1 of any year. We ordered the half serving for a Thanksgiving meal to go. The instructions were so easy and the flavors were unmatched. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving meal without all the work. The pies, the sides, the turkey….no notes. Thank you!!! Highly recommend!

What fantastic friendly service. Good meal too. Mushroom Carbonara & a glass of wine. Every employee smiled, greeted, had fantastic manners & made you feel welcome. This is only the second place in memory I'd go back simple because of how great the service was. Had to be quick because I had a flight to catch. & their were no delays. 5pm. Sat at a cute armchair/couch set up.

From the moment we stepped into the doors (without reservations) the service was exceptional. Probably helps that gratuity is built into the pricing and they pay their staff a livable wage. Google says this is an American diner but I certainly see the Spanish influence throughout the menu. The two tapas we got were probably the highlight of the meal. The roasted potatoes and whipped feta were great. Their Moscato was perfect for my wife who loves sweet wine. The hot plates didn't hit the mark for us. They weren't bad, just a bit off. The gnudi was very tomato forward and the brisket took over the dish. The scallops were perfectly cooked but the sauce they come in left the dish feeling heavier and saltier than I was hoping We were so glad to have stumbled on to this place and would absolutely recommend it to others!

What a great spot in Columbia! Definitely thinking about coming back. Everything was on point, appetizers, main dishes, wine, and desserts. I especially recommend the pan con tomate with Manchego cheese, absolutely incredible!

City Grit is one of my favorite spots in Columbia! The food is always incredible and the menu is a perfect mix of creative dishes and classic tapas staples. Everything tastes so fresh and thoughtfully made. The wine selection is just as good, with plenty of unique options that pair perfectly with the food. Dalton is the best server — friendly, attentive, and always goes above and beyond to make the experience exceptional. Can’t recommend this place enough!

Dinner at City Grit in Columbia feels part-restaurant, part-social experiment, and part-supper club run by very enthusiastic friends. The space hums with good intentions, a “gratuity-free” philosophy where staff earn full wages and any tips are donated to charity. It’s admirable, if occasionally chaotic, with servers calling everyone “friends” and the service more warm than polished. Chef-driven and community-minded, City Grit feeds both conscience and when it works, it’s excellent. The jamón anejo, a 600-day Spanish ham with olive oil and Basque peppers, is generous and rich. The boquerones, anchovies with red peppers, lemon, and chips, are fantastic. The white bolognese is a silken tangle of house-made bucatini, deeply savory but far too small for $34. The pan con tomate is the highlight: bright, garlicky perfection on small sourdough with manchego. Not everything lands. The patatas bravas were a car crash, overcooked, oddly unfried, and missing their red pepper aioli. The orange wine was more interesting than enjoyable, and the mismatched furniture adds to the general sense of well-meaning chaos. Still, City Grit’s heart is huge and in a city of safe bets, it dares to be something braver.

City Grit is hands down one of the best dining experiences I've had in South Carolina. From the moment we walked in, we were enveloped in a warm, inviting atmosphere that blends Southern charm with an effortlessly cool, modern vibe. The food? Absolutely phenomenal--each dish was a perfect balance of flavor, creativity, and execution, showcasing the finest ingredients and a chef-driven menu that truly sets this place apart. But what took our experience from excellent to unforgettable was our waiter, Dalton. Simply put, he was exceptional. His energy, knowledge, and passion for both the menu and hospitality were evident in every interaction. He made stellar recommendations, engaged with us in the most genuine way, and ensured that every detail of our meal was flawless. It's rare to find someone who can make you feel like both a VIP and an old friend at the same time, but Dalton nailed it. If you're looking for a restaurant that delivers on all fronts--atmosphere, cuisine, and impeccable service--City Grit is an absolute must. And if you're lucky enough to have Dalton as your server, you're in for a next-level experience. 10/10 would return, and I'll be telling everyone I know about this spot!

City grit is the crème de la crème of restaurants in Columbia, SC. I can truly say this was hands down the best service I have ever had. We came here after excellent experiences at smallSUGAR and il Focolare. The restaurant itself is large but the seating area is intimate and quiet. The staff are all extremely knowledgeable, passionate, and caring. Our waiter paired wines with each course based on our taste and the food we ordered, and each glass was delicious. Our food was unreal, everything just tasted so fresh and high quality. The menu is seasonal which makes for a unique experience. As for our must try items, the small seafood tower, the patatas, and the whipped feta were all hits at our table. The restaurant itself is on the expensive side, but tips are built into the pricing and they are not accepted here which offsets the costs a bit. Additionally, we came here to celebrate a friend taking the bar and the restaurant went out of their way to give us a signed card from all the staff congratulating her. I thought that was just the sweetest touch and it made our experience that much more memorable. We truly had such an unforgettable experience and I cannot wait to return to City Grit!

Upscale dining you will want a reservation for dinner. But they do take walk ins and if you just want drinks and oysters they have comfy chairs in the middle of restaurant here. Check out my pictures we tried almost everything they had to offer on several occasions this year.

As I walked into City Grit Wine Bar, I was initially impressed with how open it felt -- there was a decent amount of seating without it seeming cramped -- and the modern decor gave the restaurant a nice atmosphere . Unfortunately, the good vibes were eventually replaced with the frustration of slow (and sometimes forgotten) service. It started with our server needing a reminder to bring out a glass of wine that was missing at our table. Then there were waits for different courses to be brought out and for the server to bring out more silverware sets because they took our previous cutlery (which also required extra reminders from our table). And finally, another wait to get the check. On the food side, our group tried the Pan Con Tomate, Whipped Feta, Chorizo, Pepinos Aplastados, Patatas Bravas, Steak Tartare, and Bombas. The ingredients were fresh, the food presentation was nice, and the dishes were solid, though not the best we'd ever had. Overall, I'd give the food 4/5 stars. But the slow pace of service spoiled an otherwise good dining experience. Maybe City Grit is understaffed, or maybe it was an off-night, but I'm unlikely to return for another visit.

My new favorite restaurant in Columbia! This quaint bistro is EXCEPTIONAL. I'm from Boston, and it feels like something straight from the south end. 10/10! The food is freshly made and delicious. The ambiance is warm and inviting. The service is top notch (Dalton is the sweetest!) and don't even get me started on their wine selection! Absolutely amazing. They also have a fabulous retail section with high end candles, spices from around the world, and unique gift ideas. I would highly recommend checking out City Grit!!

Went here for dinner with a friend and our overall experience was good! The inside had a nice intimate feel to it. It does share its space with a store/ retail portion up front for food and pre made meal purchases; which I always love in these market restaurants. Our waiter was kind and gave us great recommendations from the menu and for the wine. The menu is small but the servings for the entree dishes were a great size. I ordered the stuffed ricotta dumplings and a dessert wine. Both were excellent. My friend had the same and we also shared the goat cheese spread with grilled sourdough as an appetizer. It was all delicious. I do feel our waiter could have been more attentive and he made the mistake of charging my card for another table but he fixed it immediately. Which could have been avoided since it wasn't so busy to make such a mistake. Also the prices are on the expensive side. My 1/3 glass of dessert wine was $16 and our ricotta dumpling dishes were $36. The prices are explained on their website and on the menu but it's still expensive in my opinion. In order to pay their wait staff a decent wage instead of working for tips. I do understand and support the concept. I will definitely come back to try other menu items and browse their market items.

I tried City Grit for the first time today while visiting Columbia, SC with my sister. The food, ambiance and service were all amazing! Every one was extremely kinda and the in house baker made the best fresh croissants that same morning. When I say delicious, I mean it! The brisket usually comes on a panini but we asked for it on the fresh croissant and they made it for us. So delicious. 10/10 recommend!

By far my favorite place in Columbia! I highly recommend going here and bringing all your friends and fam. Have a wine night with some amazing tapas and dessert. The food quality and flavors were beyond amazing and fresh. The service (aka Randy) is the BEST. Randy knows the menu and what wines would taste good with the meals very great at pairing and gauging what the customers would like. Randy helped choose our sides and entree I'd give them all a 10/10! Nothing disappointed me at all. I want to come here and bring everyone I know every week. The interior has such a cool vibe/concept. Pretty nice space to bring friends or a date. There is parking up front street parking and parking towards the side and back of here. We ordered the chorizo, tuna on an amazing baguette, the mushroom carbonara which was to die for and the cucumber salad with this Chile vinaigrette & can't forget the basque cheesecake with a berry compote. The best cheesecake I've had. Highly recommend making a resy I heard they get busy for dinner!

At first blush the menu is pricy. But after following the recommendations of Daulton, it was well worth it. Found out all of their food is super fresh, made in house and they support local projects to feed the poorer areas around the community. Service was amazing and the ambiance was perfect for the great meal. Would do back.

City Grit had quickly become one of my favorite stops in town and go-to girls' night out/date night spots. Amazing food (Mediterranean-style tapas), great wine list (always unique & changing options) and the absolute best staff (so friendly & approachable). Added bonus is they pay a living wage to their employees and support a variety of charities. Stop by for happy hour, dinner & now lunch and check them out!!

Just when you think you can't love a place and its people more than you already do, City Grit says "hold my beer (er, wine?)!" Sarah and Dalton and this amazing food experience just made our night! We had wonderful and creative food with a new pork dish that was cooked and served perfectly with a coconut rice (pudding?) and apples two ways. It's hard to describe, but I just wanted to eat and eat it all. Reminded me of a dish from Paris that I have been dreaming about for close to 10 years. Sarah, being the incredible person that she is, knew my bday was last week and had the most generous box of culinary goodies for me. We are so lucky to have a place like this in Columbia, and we can't wait to go again and introduce more people to this gem!

This was not my first time at city grit but it is my first time reviewing. We were having lunch at small sugar, and they advised that City Grit was having an open house. No the establishment is not new and I'm thinking this is another rebranding attempt. Firstly, customer service is always impeccable. The staff is very friendly and they've got some pretty interesting items. If you are a foodie however, it's a little hard to find pricing on a few of the items. Please don't assume something is priced in a certain manner. example I purchased a small bag of flat bread crisps. When I got home, my partner said he paid $16 for a bag of flatbread crackers!!!! There are also some other items that I purchase that were marked up about six or seven dollars more than it was when I looked for them online. I'm not sure if they have the same motto as small sugar they do aim to pay their workers fair wages, which is why the prices are a little higher. But now the good part all of their prepared food items are absolutely delicious! The marinated cucumbers are hands-down, the best cucumber side that you will ever experience. All desserts, vegan and regular are absolutely divine. I would highly recommend checking out city grit, but I would also recommend getting a price check before heading to the counter but they have plenty of options that are priced decent. Because the cucumbers, roasted veggies and a few other items have me on a chokehold I will be back!

Good food with great service. Loved the small plates we shared as a table. My wife loved the patatas bravas and I really liked the mushroom carbonara.

Great spot for a delicious and affordable lunch. The staff is so helpful and the food is amazing!

New York feel. Interesting tasty food, great wine selections. Owners are welcoming and knowledgeable. No tipping, which is reflected in the prices, but a welcome change. Great space! Fun night, will return and bring friends.

This picture does not do it justice! Everything was sublime! I also had the shrimp amazing! The bread may have been the best bread I have ever had! Thank you and thank you Randy for such a welcome to Columbia! I'll be back!

Excellent service with time to savor courses and enjoy the food presented. Waiter was engaged and had great recommendations. Food was fantastic from tapas to main dishes to the bombas for dessert.

Ok...so I am not a fan of EVERYTHING Chef Sarah Simmons does but this place is outstanding. I can only hope there will be more operational hours in the future. But for right now...be sure to make a reservation and plan on leaving by 9 PM or shortly thereafter. While the name City Grit would lead u to believe it may be more "southern" in style, its actually more of a tapas style restaurant, heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine. The aquid ink pasta was one of our favorites and was a special for the evening. Our wine selections were a perfect pairing. The Blistered Shishito peppers with parm were excellent and not overly spicy. We tasted the manchengo appetizer...also delicious. The clams with chorizo broth which was light & flavorful. My absolute favorite were the bocquerones prepared in the traditional Spanish style with vinegar and oil. The Jamon with melon was delicious and the Gambas were perfectly spiced and served with the head on..also a European flare. And we truly enjoyed the heads! Luckily all this was shared with friends and we finished with a perfectly caramelized flan and the Churros with Nutella..by far my favorite dessert. The churros where doughy and covered in sugar with a Nutella and sea salt dipping sauce. So good. My hope is that this place becomes packed on the daily because this is probably the most exciting thing to happen to Columbia in a while by one of the top two female Chef's in the city. Just gp there...you won't be sorry! And I didn't even get to speak about the top tier funkY kitchen supplies and food items you will find in the market portion of the building.

Excellent food, service, and ambience. Attentive service. Will continue to patronize City Grit!

We had a wonderful family dinner at City Grit on Saturday night. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and every dish we tried was delicious. Our favorites were the Boquerones, the Shrimp, the Mushroom Carbonara, and the Ricotta Dumplings with braised Short Rib. Will definitely be back on our next visit to Columbia.

Was really excited to try this place. The decor is nice - it has a refined industrial appeal. Menu is interesting. I ordered some tapas - whipped feta was good, steak tartare was the standout, and cucumber salad was fine but a ripoff. $16 for cucumber shavings, 4 marcona almonds, and two slices of cheese? I got all my tapas while my husband waited for his entree - the mushroom carbonara. He pointed out that I would be done before he got his meal so I purposely slowed down so we could kind of eat together. We waited and waited. Besides refilling water, we were ignored. Staff did not ask us how the food was or even generally give a sh*t. Asked where it was and after the server checked with the kitchen, she said it was being made right now. Pretty sure it was forgotten about and sent on the fly. When it came, it was disappointing. Tasted kind of seafood-y. And it seems like they ran out of pasta bc they used multiple noodle types. We got the bill and noticed taxes (hospitality tax & transportation tax) we hadn't seen before as we don't go out much in Richland County. When we asked, the server was like "I dunno, I don't work for the IRS." Kinda salty - do people not care where their money goes ? We found out when paying that they're gratuity free as well. Perhaps that explains the lack of personality and customer service. Overall, the food was probably a 3/5 on average but service was terrible.

City Grit is an interesting concept of gourmet market + bakery + tapas. The wine & beer menu has many noteworthy selections and the staff is friendly. However, the no-frills atmosphere is similar to a delicatessen. We were not dazzled by our meal--which included the papatas bravas + boneless short rib + pan con tomate + chorizo/goat cheese tapas. Overall, the fried potatoes & short rib were well seasoned, albeit salty. The chorizo/goat cheese spread appetizer was lackluster and needed toasted baguettes or pita points on the side. The Pan con tomate was recommended by our server and was absolutely tasteless/inedible--consisting of soggy country bread saturated in olive oil and a cold tomato compote. As a James Beard nominated restaurant, City Grit was incredibly disappointing. If you are looking for delicious tapas in Columbia , there are far better options than City Grit (i.e., Lula Drake & Ratio).

We really enjoyed our dinner here! It's a super cute, classy lil joint with a shop in front-sort of a baby gourmet shop vibe. Our waiter was super knowledgeable about wines and brought my non wine drinker friend a wine she actually enjoyed. We tried a bunch of tapas with the standouts being the whipped feta, mushroom toast and the patatas bravas. As I was splitting the check with a non meat eater we did not try any of the meat dishes. We did try the mushroom carbonara which I would skip next time as it didn't have as much flavor as I would have liked. Otherwise it was a wonderful experience and we will definitely be back!

We had dinner at City Grit after having been there before. However our experience this time was not like the first. We had the short ribs, burratta. Brisket and fried potatoes. The fried potatoes and burratta was good. I would pass on the rest. The atmosphere is nice, but our server was not friendly or interested in making our experience any better. Our previous experience and food was much better than this time...not sure we will be back any time soon. There are a lot of other choices for dinner.

They weren't open as their hours said.. we went there it was a blank trip. I traveled 112 miles to get there. A place behind them Small Sugar was open we ate there.

Wow! Super place. Cool, cozy ambiance, knowledgeable, friendly, helpful people, creative menu and truly amazing food. Small plates, large plates and awesome wine. Highly recommended.

amazingly delicious cucumber salad, tuna and cabbage & farro tapas. wine also very good. my one suggestion would be slight menu simplification... also great service and lovely ambiance.

Came in to Columbia for a Beer Fest and had a tough time finding any reservations. Took a chance with City Grit, because we LOVE tapas...and this just blew our minds! Service was impeccable, atmosphere was quaint, food was outstanding. We will be back!

This is one of our favorite spots in Columbia! Creative, delicious food and friendly, impeccable service.

This was our first visit. Everything was delicious. Randy was our server. He was fantastic: very knowledgeable and kind.

Went to Spain recently and I swear I think this food was better than most of the things I had there. I have not enjoyed a meal this much in quite some time. I intend to eventually try everything on the menu.

What a delight this was! I admit I made a reservation as soon as I saw the James Beard nominations and we were not disappointed. The ambiance, food and staff were a breath of fresh air. One of my FAVORITE things about City Grit Wine Bar is that they pay their staff a living wage so no tipping. The effects of this policy cascade into the experience. The staff seem relaxed and happy to be there which made us happy to be there. Of course the prices accounted for it, but it felt to me as if this was how it should be, if that makes any sense. The wine was good and interesting. The food evoked my favorite memories of Spain. The atmosphere was relaxing and unique, at least from my perspective, in Columbia.

Food is always fantastic and service is the best. Definitely the best restaurant in Columbia

Had a great experience here last night! Great food, atmosphere, and people working are extremely personable. Loved it! Will be back. Would recommend the pataras bravas, the whipped ricotta tapa, and the olives. They had multiple non-alcoholic wine options which was really refreshing as well!